Search Results (10)

Multiple ironstone beds formed during the Callovian-Oxfordian times as a consequence of intense continental weathering, upwelling, and hydrothermal activity. This study examines the compositional differences between core and rim, and the origin of iron ooids along the northwestern margin of the Neo-Tethys Ocean to highlight sea-level fluctuations, redox conditions, and elemental influx. An integrated sedimentological study, including petrography, mineralogy, micro-texture, and mineral chemistry, was carried out to explain the origin and implications of ironstones. The ~14 m thick Callovian-Oxfordian, marginal marine deposits in the Kutch Basin, in western India, exhibit iron ooids, predominantly formed in oolitic shoals during transgression, associated with lagoonal siliciclastics. Callovian shoals interbedded with lagoonal facies record minor sea-level fluctuations, whereas the Oxfordian deposit records a major transgression and condensation, resulting in extensive ironstone deposits. The ooid cortices and nuclei exhibit distinctive mineralogy and micro-textures: glauconitic smectite exhibits poorly-developed rosettes, chamosite displays flower-like, and goethite shows rod-like features. Three types of ooids are formed: (i) monomineralic ooids are entirely of chamosite or goethite, (ii) quartz-nucleated ooids, and (iii) composite ooids with either chamosite core and goethite rim, or chamosite core and glauconitic smectite rim. The assemblages within iron ooids reflect variation in depositional redox conditions: glauconitic smectite develops under suboxic lagoonal flank, chamosite forms in anoxic central lagoon, and goethite precipitates on oxic shoals. Full article

Routine core permeability and porosity are crucial in assessing flow units within a reservoir because they define a reservoir’s storage and flow capacities. A limited amount of work has been conducted on the lower cretaceous (Barremian to Valanginian) sandstones in the Bredasdorp Basin, offshore South Africa, focusing on the flow zones and the possible effect of diagenetic minerals on the individual flow zones, limiting understanding of reservoir quality and fluid flow behavior across the field. Nine hundred routine core analysis datasets were used to determine the flow units within the reservoir from three wells (F-A10, F-A13, and F-O2) from independent methods, namely: the Pore Throat Radius, Flow Zone Indicator, Stratigraphic Modified Lorenz Plot, and Improved Stratigraphic Modified Lorenz Plot. The results showed six flow units: fracture, super-conductive, conductor, semi-conductor, baffle, and semi-barrier. The super-conductive flow units contributed the most flow, whereas the semi-barrier and baffle units contributed the least flow. Petrography analyses revealed that the diagenetic minerals present were smectite, illite, glauconite, siderite, micrite calcite, and chlorite. The pore-filling minerals reduced the pore spaces and affected pore connectivity, significantly affecting the flow contribution of the baffle and semi-barrier units. Micrite calcite and siderite cementation in FU5 of F-A13 and FU9 of F-O2 significantly reduced the intergranular porosity by filling up the pore spaces, resulting in tight flow units with impervious reservoir quality. It was noted that where the flow unit was classified as super-conductive, authigenic clays did not significantly affect porosity and permeability as they only occurred locally. However, calcite and silica cementation significantly affected pore connectivity, where the flow unit was classified as a very low, tight, semi-barrier, or barrier. Full article

Glaucony occurrences have been reported both from exposed transgressive and overlying highstand system tracts. However, its occurrences within highstand deposits are often invoked as the result of underlying condensed section reworking. Detailed textural, mineralogical and geochemical reports of glaucony grains in highstand deposits remain elusive. The northern Gulf of Cadiz shelf (SW Iberia) offers a unique opportunity to investigate late Holocene glaucony authigenesis in a well-documented time-stratigraphic context, where transgressive deposits are locally exposed on the seafloor and are laterally draped by highstand muddy deposits. In this study, glaucony grains extracted from a core retrieved from a highstand muddy depocenter off the Guadiana River were investigated by means of digital microscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and electron microscopic methods (FESEM-EDX and TEM-HRTEM). To better constrain the glaucony origin (autochthonous vs. allochthonous) in highstand muddy deposits, glaucony grains from surficial samples—taken from exposed transgressive deposits—were also investigated. Glauconitization in the studied core can be largely attributed to the replacement of faecal pellets from c. ~4.2–1.0 cal. ka BP. Both XRD and TEM-HRTEM analyses indicate that glaucony consists mainly of an R1, with a minor presence of R0, smectite-rich (nontronite) glauconite-smectite mixed-layer silicate, made up of 35–75% glauconitic layers and 65–25% of interstratified smectite layers. At the mineral lattice level, minor individual 7Å layers (berthierine) were also identified by HRTEM. Shallow radial cracks at the pellet surface, along with globular and vermiform-like biomorphic to low packing density lamellar-flaky nanostructures, mineralogical properties, and K-poor content (average 0.4 atoms p.f.u.) indicate a scarcely mature glauconitization process, attesting to formation of the grains in situ (autochthonous). Glaucony grains from exposed transgressive deposits, i.e., in the tests of calcareous benthic foraminifera, do not share a genetic relationship with the grains investigated in the highstand deposits, thus supporting the autochthonous origin of glaucony within the highstand deposits. Our combined dataset provides evidence of a multiphase history for autochthonous glaucony formation in the Guadiana shelf, as its genesis is traced to both transgressive and highstand conditions. While eustatic sea-level changes favoured glaucony formation under transgressive conditions, factors such as protracted low sediment supply and the establishment of a strong nutrient-rich upwelling system in the study area promoted glaucony development during late Holocene highstand conditions. Full article

For a long time, particular attention was paid to glauconitization in the surficial sediments lying on the outer continental shelves of present oceans. Subsequently, the processes observed and analyzed may have served as models for studies of glauconite in Cenozoic or even Mesozoic shelf deposits. Access to the sedimentary domains of deep oceans, particularly those of contouritic accumulation fields, has made it possible to discover unexpected processes of glauconitization. Thus, the long-term prevalence of control using fairly high-temperature water has become obsolete, and the prerequisite influence of continental flows has come to be considered on a new scale. Frequently, sediments from contouritic accumulation provide a condensed and undisturbed sedimentary record without periods of sediment erosion. Glauconitic grains could possibly integrate the signatures of bottom-water masses over prolonged periods of time, which, while preventing their use in high-resolution studies, would provide an effective means of yielding reliable average estimates on past εNd signatures of bottom-water masses. In this regard, glauconitic grains are probably better-suited to paleoceanographic reconstructions than foraminifera and leached Fe-oxyhydroxide fractions, which appear to be influenced by sediment redistribution and the presence of terrestrial continental Fe-oxides, respectively. Direct methodological access to the compositions of the semi-confined microenvironments of neoformation has largely renewed the information, chemical or crystallographic, that was previously, and for a long time, restricted to macromeasurements. The various granular supports (mudclasts, fecal pellets, and foraminifera infillings) include inherited 1:1 clays (or Te-Oc; i.e., clay minerals consisting of one tetrahedral sheet and one octahedral sheet, such as kaolinite) that are gradually replaced by 2:1 clays (Te-Oc-Te) dominated first by smectite, and then by glauconite. In small pores, the water’s activity is diminished; as a consequence, the precipitation of a great number of mineral species is thereby made easier, and their stability domains are changed. A specific methodological approach allows the study of the mineralogy and chemistry of the fine-scale mineral phases and to avoid the global aspect of the analytical methods previously used in the initial studies. Wide-field micrographs taken at a mean direct magnification of 100.000 show the intimate and characteristic organization of the main phases that occur in a single grain. One or several “fine” (about 10 nanometers in scale) microchemical analyses can be recorded, and directly coupled with each interesting and well-identified structure image observed in HRTEM. Full article

Green authigenic mica, i.e., celadonite, is commonly associated with submarine alteration of basic igneous rock. However, very few studies have reported the formation of celadonite under nonmarine conditions. An integrated study involving field investigation, petrography, mineralogy, and mineral chemistry highlighted the origin of celadonite in two clay-rich horizons (green boles) of the Late Cretaceous Deccan volcanic province. Within the Salher green bole, the celadonite occurred as the dissolution and alteration of plagioclase, volcanic glass, and pore-filling cement. In the case of the Pune green bole, the celadonite was formed by the alteration of plagioclase, pyroxene, and precipitation as film within intergranular pores, along with zeolite. The celadonite in the Salher green bole exhibited slightly lower K₂O and Fe₂O₃ and higher Al₂O₃ than in the Pune. The mineral chemistry of the former showed a composition closer to ferro-aluminoceladonite. Although the mineral chemistry of celadonite overlaps with glauconite, the distinct 10 Å and 15 Å reflections in XRD, euhedral lath and honeycomb morphology under SEM, and characteristic absorption bands in VNIR spectroscopy (0.4–2.5 µm) and FTIR spectroscopy (400–4000 cm⁻¹) identified celadonite and Fe-smectite within green boles. The green boles were formed either by the alteration of a volcaniclastic deposit in local pools of water or by the in situ alteration of the fragmentary flow top. The present study is significant due to the occurrence of celadonite in a nonmarine environment, as it otherwise forms under submarine conditions. Full article

Glaucony is a significant green marine facies in the northwestern passive margin of the Guadalquivir Basin (Spain), where glauconite formed authigenically on a sediment-starved continental shelf, with fecal pellets and benthic foraminiferal tests being the main glauconitized substrates. Results from a study using XRD, TGA-DSC, SEM-EDS, and EPMA have revealed that glauconite is remarkably heterogeneous in mineral composition and chemical maturity, even in a single grain, reflecting a complex interaction of micro-environmental factors, substrate influences and post-depositional alterations. In its early stage, the glauconitization process is consistent with the slow precipitation of a Fe-rich smectite phase, most likely intergrade between nontronite and Fe-montmorillonite end-members, which evolved to a regularly interstratified glauconite-smectite (Gl/S). The Fe-smectite-to-Gl/S transformation is interpreted as a diffusion-controlled reaction, involving sufficient Fe availability in pore water and the constant diffusive transport of seawater K⁺ and Mg²⁺ ions towards the substrate. The pelletal glauconite is actually a highly evolved Gl/S consisting almost totally of mica layers, with 0.74 ± 0.05 apfu of K⁺ in the interlayer, while the Gl/S occurring as replacements of foraminiferal tests contains a mean of 7% of expandable layers in the walls and 16% in the chamber fillings, due to rate-limited ion diffusion. Full article

Numerous phosphate occurrences are located in the Bohemian Cretaceous Basin (BCB) of the Czech Republic, within the Cenomanian–Turonian sequences. Small phosphate occurrences have been reported in the Upper Cenomanian, Lower Turonian, and Upper Turonian marine glauconitic siliciclasts. The phosphates are generally <1 m thick, present as phosphatized hardgrounds, nodules, coprolites, skeletal remains, phosphatized shells, peloids, sponges, and tube-fills, associated with black mudstone and other siliciclasts. Only recently the critical elements have been highlighted in these phosphates. The present study covers eight of these occurrences and provides information on petrography, mineralogy, and chemical composition of major elements, trace elements, and stable isotopes. The phosphate mineralogy is comprised of carbonate-fluorapatite, associated with quartz, glauconite, smectite, kaolinite, and pyrite. Most of the phosphates are rich in organic matter. The phosphate chemistry is dominated by P₂O₅, CaO, F, Na₂O, SO₃, and CO₂. Minor amounts of SiO₂, Al₂O₃, K₂O, and MgO are found, related to quartz and alumino-silicate impurities. Evidence of fossil microbial structures is revealed. The indices derived from rare earth elements (REE) indicate phosphogenesis at various redox conditions, ranging from anoxic to oxic, whereas the carbon stable isotopes of the apatite suggest generally reducing conditions. The critical and other valuable elements found in these Mid-Cretaceous phosphates include P₂O₅ (18.9–26.76 wt. %), F (1.67–3.25 wt. %), REE (325–1338 ppm), Y (74–368 ppm), and U (10.4–37.9 ppm). The investigation of the Turonian phosphate occurrences show that those located at the base of the Bílá Hora Formation (earliest Turonian) are the most persistent in the southern margins of the BCB, and found in localities extending for about 200 km. They were developed at the onset of the Early Turonian global transgression and are strata-bound to the base of the Bílá Hora Formation. Future exploration for marine sedimentary phosphorites should focus on thicker and better developed deposits at the base of the Turonian sediments as the main target. Full article

Natural zeolite occurrences have been recognized in several Cenozoic pyroclastic deposits in central Sardinia. This study concerns the mineralogical and geochemical characterization of the zeolitized tuffites in the Asuni area (Oristano province) and aims to complement information regarding the zeolitization processes developed in the nearby Allai deposits. Optical and scanning electron microscopy, X-ray powder diffraction, qualitative vs. quantitative microanalyses and bulk-rock geochemistry were performed. Analytical results allow defining the mineral distribution, textural relationships and geochemical features of the zeolite-bearing rocks. The most abundant secondary minerals are Ca-Na mordenites. Contrarily to the most common worldwide clinoptilolite + mordenite paragenesis, mordenite is dominant and occurs in different morphologies, rarely coexisting with clinoptilolite in the studied volcanic tuffites. Glauconite and dioctahedral smectite complete the authigenic assemblages. The primary volcanic components mostly include plagioclase, quartz and glass shards, roughly retaining their original appearance. The tuffites range in composition from dacite to rhyolite. The collected dataset shows that zeolitization is most abundant in coarser-grained deposits and points to a genetic process that mainly involves an open hydrothermal environment governed by aqueous fluids with significant marine component, in post eruption conditions. Full article

This study is devoted to studying the sorption of ¹³⁷Cs on mineral sorbents at a wide pH range, from 2 to 10, as well as to studying sorption mechanisms. In order to obtain the most reliable sorption characteristics, samples of high purity were examined as sorbents: bentonite, glauconite, zeolite, and diatomite. A detailed description of their mineral composition, cation exchange capacity and specific surface of sorbents is given. XRD, XRF, FTIR, SEM, and BET adsorption methods were used for assaying. The sorption and desorption values were identified for each sorbent. As a result of the conducted research, it can be concluded that ¹³⁷Cs sorption mainly occurs through the exchange reaction on zeolite, glauconite and bentonite. The highest cesium Kd was observed on zeolite due to its high CEC and amounted to 4.05 mg/L at pH 7. The higher sorption capacity of glauconite in comparison with bentonite is primarily due to the high layer charge which is mainly localized in tetrahedral sheets, and to the existence of highly selective sorption sites (frayed edge sites) on the glauconite surface. Diatomite showed the lowest sorption capacity provided by the presence of a small quantity of smectite and kaolinite in its composition. The values of desorption increase in the following order: zeolite < bentonite ~ diatomite < glauconite. Full article

Mineralogy of phosphatized and zeolitized hydrogenous cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts from Dirck Hartog Ridge (DHR), the Perth Abyssal Plain (PAP), formed on an altered basaltic substrate, is described. Detail studies of crusts were conducted using optical transmitted light microscopy, X-ray Powder Diffraction (XRD) and Energy Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence (EDXRF), Differential Thermal Analysis (DTA) and Electron Probe Microanalysis (EPMA). The major Fe-Mn mineral phases that form DHR crusts are low-crystalline vernadite, asbolane and a feroxyhyte-ferrihydrite mixture. Accessory minerals are Ca-hydroxyapatite, zeolites (Na-phillipsite, chabazite, heulandite-clinoptilolite), glauconite and several clay minerals (Fe-smectite, nontronite, celadonite) are identified in the basalt-crust border zone. The highest Ni, Cu and Co contents are observed in asbolane and Mn-(Fe) vernadite. There is significant enrichment of Ti in feroxyhyte−ferrihydrite and vernadite. The highest rare earth element (REE) content is measured in the phosphate minerals, less in phyllosilicates and Na-phillipsite. The geochemical composition of minerals in the DHR crusts supports the formation of crusts by initial alteration, phosphatization and zeolitization of the substrate basalts followed by oscillatory Fe-Mn oxyhydroxides precipitation of hydrogenous vernadite (oxic conditions) and diagenous asbolane (suboxic conditions). Full article